Hintlesham and Chattisham
C of E Primary School
Safeguarding Notice
During the holiday period, the safety and well-being of our students remain our priority. While the school will be closed during the holidays, support and resources are still available for those who need them.
If you have any concerns about the safety of a child or young person, please contact one of the following:
• Local Children's Services: Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership: Concerned — Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership or 0808 800 4005
• NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children): 0808 800 5000
• Childline: 0800 1111 (for children and young people)
• Police: In an emergency, dial 999 For additional resources, you can visit Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership
We encourage everyone to stay safe and look out for one another.
RUBY CLASS2022-EYFS-RECEPTION
Ruby Class is our Early Years Foundation Stage class and is taught by Mrs Greenwood and Mrs Death.
We are supported by Mrs Hambling and Mrs Polley.
Our EYFS curriculum is strongly influenced by our curriculum drivers: community, communication, opportunities and possibilities and initiative, where the outcome is a cohort of happy, independent, confident and determined learners who are able to communicate effectively, have the ability to think critically, enjoy sharing their thoughts and ideas with others and believe that anything is achievable. The children within our early years provision learn through a range of child initiated play-based opportunities as well as child-led, adult led and independent learning opportunities.
Press play to spend the day with Ruby Class...
If you are a parent of a child in Ruby Class, click on the icon to go to the Tapestry login page.
Click on the tree to see what we have been up to in the Wild Woods
For more information about our phonics program, Read Write Inc. click on Fred Frog.
Click on the crayon to read our latest newsletter.
Welcome to a new academic year in EYFS at Hintlesham and Chattisham CofE Primary School. We cannot wait to share all of our learning and adventures with you...
Wishing our wonderful Ruby Class graduates and their families a super summer holidays. Thank you so much for all of the kind words and generous gifts we have received. Being part of your learning journey has been our absolute privilege. Much love, Mrs Death xx and Mrs Greenwood xx
Summer Term 2-Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside!
19.5.2023
We can't believe it is the last week of term already! Congratulations Ruby Class, on an amazing first year at school-we are so proud of everything you have achieved. We have enjoyed celebrating you all this week!
Look at the super boats we created by following our designs...we had a great time testing whether they float or sink and having some boat races. We also talked about how we would improve our design next time. Great DT work everyone!
14.7.2023
This week, we have been finding out about mermaids and pirates. We listened to the story 'Night Pirates' by Peter Harris and created our own treasure maps. We have also enjoyed creating mermaid tails and pirates in the creative corner.
In RE, we have been writing our own animal blessings...
7.7.23
The children have been really interested to find out about ocean pollution this week after reading 'Fish' by Brenden Kearney. They are all on board to find ways to help to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in our seas and oceans and have all promised to be a part of the '3 for the sea' campaign.
After discussing the importance of recycling, the children designed their own boat made from recyclable materials. We are looking forward to making and testing them soon!
In maths, we have been exploring numbers beyond 20. The children have been matching numerals to pictorial representations and putting them in the right order. They have also been practicing their counting on skills. Mrs Jackson even challenged them to dig a little deeper and explore collections of 100! She was super impressed with the children's counting skills and how they used the tens frames to check they had been accurate with their counting.
18.3.2023
This week we have been celebrating British Science Week and have all enjoyed taking part in different science activities...
Happy Smells
We started by smelling a flower and thought about how it made us feel/what is made us think of. We then had a lovely discussion about smells that make us feel happy. Next, we tried to guess some 'secret smells' and decided which one was our favourite and why. We created a block graph of our favourite smells and wrote some super sentences too.
Wildlife Faces
We each had a photo of half of an animals/insects face and then had to find the other half from a selection. We then had to name our animal and find someone with an animal that had a similarity and then a difference. We did lots of comparing and contrasting before finding out some interesting facts about our animal/insect. We were excited to discover that we are likely to see all of the animals we found out about in and around Hintlesham-hedgehog, deer, field mouse, tortoiseshell butterfly, blue chalkhill butterfly, barn owl, long-eared owl, short-eared owl, little owl, fox, robin and badger.
We were all super brave in our Science Week assembly to parents. We talked about our Science Week activities and even read out our sentences about our favourite smell-everyone was very impressed!
We have LOVED learning about doubles in maths this week and are getting very fast at showing doubles on our fingers. Look at our super doubling butterflies...
We have also thought about how lucky we are to have such lovely mums and made them all a lovely dandelion Mother's Day card. We also included a special message about why we are thankful for them.
The week ended perfectly with our trip to the seaside with Emerald Class.
Our first stop was the port of Felixstowe. We were all really interested to watch the shipping containers being unloaded at the docks and to see the sea excavator dredging the seabed to deepen the berth!
We hopped back onto the bus and headed to the seafront. There was lots of excitement when we finally arrived at the seaside. We had a great time playing on the beach and paddling in the sea. We managed to hold off until 5 to 12 for our lunch!
After lunch, we spent some some time building our final sandcastles and having one more paddle. We left the beach exactly how we found it (taking all of our rubbish with us-well done everybody) and headed to the South Kiosk for an ice cream. All of the children enjoyed ordering and paying for their own treat.
We finished off the afternoon with a play on the park then headed back to the bus for home time. Your behaviour today was impeccable Ruby Class. with many members of the public commenting on the way you were conducting yourselves. What a super day out!
30.6.2023
It was very exciting to spend the morning in Emerald Class this week and practice being grown up Year 1's!
Back in Ruby Class, we have been working on our problem solving skills in maths. After reading Mr Gumpy’s Outing, we looked at a page from the story and explained that Mr Gumpy had a problem. There are too many legs in his boat! Everyone’s legs are getting tangled up! The children were then asked to work out how many legs there were by drawing a picture to help work it out. They then continued to problem solve...
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by J this week. J was very excited to show his friends his very special rosette. He talked to us about his riding school and told us how he helps to look after the horses. Mrs Hambling works at a yard and kindly brought in some horsey bits for J to talk about-we were all impressed with his knowledge. We then enjoyed out finding out some facts about horses together. Did you know that horses are herbivores and because their eyes are at the side of their heads they have almost 360 degree vision? Did you know a male horse is called a stallion and a female horse is called a filly?
All of the children made a hobby horse and had super fun racing them on the field.
What a super session J-thank you!
23.6.2023 SPORTS AND WELL-BEING WEEK
We have loved celebrating all things sports and well-being this week. We had super fun taking part in some field events with our buddies and our first sports morning.
Ruby Class have also enjoyed taking part in a variety of mindfulness activities this week. There favourite one was the maltesar mindfulness activity. The children spent 1 minute looking a the maltesar, 1 minute smelling the maltesar and 1 minute holding the maltesar on their tongue before being allowed to eat it! This activity allowed us the time to really appreciate the maltesar and reminded us that we must slow down and be thankful for the small things in life.
SPIRITED ARTS COMPETITION
Look at Ruby Class' entry to the Spirited Arts competition 2023 based on the theme 'Green faith, green future? (God's good earth)'.
Many religions thank God for nature, from Aardvarks to Zebras, via cats, elephants and rabbits. But the climate crisis deepens. Are we spoiling God’s good earth? Can we save it – and ourselves - in time from the threats of climate change? In this theme, learners are invited to explore ideas and beliefs about the natural world, animals and the environment, human responsibility for the earth and ways of praying about climate justice
16.6.2023
This week we read 'Tiddler' by Julia Donaldson in our PSHE session to make sure the children understand the importance of taking turns with others and that they know that things don't always go there way-and that is ok! The children enjoyed playing a game of seaside bingo to practice these skills.
The children also enjoyed writing their own excuses for why Tiddler was late!
What super gymnasts we have in Ruby Class! We are so impressed with all of the skills they are demonstrating so far. This week (week 2), we focused on holding a shape and improving our balancing skills. Great work everyone 💪👍
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Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by N this week, who loves baking cakes. The children enjoyed reading the ingredients list and measuring them all out. They also worked together to follow the recipe to make their delicious cakes-I hope they tasted as good as they looked! Thank you for a lovely session N.
9.6.2023
This week we have read the story 'What the Ladybird Heard at the Seaside' to kickstart our new topic. The children were brilliant at talking about the similarities and differences between this story and 'What the Ladybird Heard' that we read last term.
The children then chose a character from the story and wrote some descriptive sentences. We had great fun trying to guess which character was being described!
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by H this week, who LOVES making s'mores on the fire.
We found out that s'mores first appeared in a 1920s US cookbook as a recipe called the 'Graham Cracker Sandwich' where a toasted marshmallow and half a chocolate bar were sandwiched between Graham Crackers - a sweet biscuit made with graham flour and flavoured with honey or cinnamon. We also learned the name is a contraction of the phrase 'some more' and whilst traditionally the marshmallows were roasted over a fire, they can also be warmed over a gas flame.
H helped prepare all of the ingredients and then everyone enjoyed toasting their marshmallow over the gas flame (whilst discussing fire safety) and then eating their sticky treat!
"This is the best thing I have ever tasted" was heard lots of times!
Thanks for a yummy session H!
Summer Term 1-Minibeasts, Lifecycles and In the Garden
We are very pleased to announce that all 5 of our tiny caterpillars successfully got bigger and bigger, spun into cocoons and turned into 5 butterflies. We enjoyed observing them for a couple of days before releasing them into the Wild Woods. We are excited that the whole cycle will now start again and will be keeping our eye out for caterpillars!
26.5.2023
This week we have enjoyed reading 'What the Ladybird Heard' written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Lydia Monks. The children created some amazing maps of the farm and were brilliant at explaining the route Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len would take using positional language. It was super fun making up new sounds for the animals too! They also enjoyed following Lydia's instructions on how to draw Hefty Hugh-the results were AMAZING!
19.5.2023
This week, Ruby Class have carried on with their learning based around 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. In our writing session the children took on the challenge of writing the whole story! Most children wrote as part of a group but 2 children asked for the extra challenge
of writing the whole story all by themselves.
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by G who LOVES unicorns. We found out that unicorns (and dragons) are one of the oldest mythical creatures and have been appearing in paintings and stories for hundreds of years. In fact, it was the ancient Greeks that first started writing about unicorns. We learned that a baby unicorn is called a sparkle and that unicorns have magical powers. We also talked about the difference between a unicorn and a pegasus-a unicorn does not have wings but a pegasus does!
Then it was time to create our own picture of a unicorn (or dragon)...using our footprint! The giggling was infectious as Gloria painted everyone's foot! The children printed their footprint and then enjoyed a mini foot spa before the creativity took hold and we ended up with some amazing unicorns and dragons. Such fun G-thank you for a super session!
Happy World Bee Day 2023!
To celebrate all things bee, the children enjoyed learning some bee facts, creating their own pine cone bees and doing some hapa zome (hammering flowers to make a print).
On Friday, Ruby Class performed their very first class assembly for the whole school and their parents...they were all amazing and super brave. They enjoyed sharing a phonics lesson, a game of 'beat the champion' showing off their knowledge of doubles, singing 'Tiny Caterpillar on a Leaf' and sharing lots of their fabulous work. Well done everyone.
12.5.2023
This week we based our learning on 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle. We started by
reading the story and talking about the parts of the story that are fact/fiction. We then enjoyed sorting the sentences: Caterpillars eat leaves. Caterpillars lay eggs. Caterpillars eat ice cream cones on Saturdays. Caterpillars turn into butterflies. We then worked together to create a story map to help us when we write the story next week.
Our caterpillars are 2 weeks old now and are getting bigger and bigger!
Ruby Class have also enjoyed creating a bug hotel for the education tent at the Hadleigh Show. Super team work everyone-I think you are going to have lots of happy and satisfied guests!
6.5.2023
This week we have been learning all about King Charles III and his upcoming coronation. The children worked really hard to create a portrait of King Charles III and write him a message. We are going to send them to the palace and hope for a response. The portraits and messages have also been used to create bunting to decorate the village hall for their coronation celebrations. Great work Ruby Class.
We are all really enjoying our tennis lessons with Mrs Hughes. This week we learned how to serve and keep a rally going.
On Friday morning, Ruby Class enjoyed a mini tea party complete with a King Wiggles cake.Then in the afternoon, the whole school enjoyed a coronation party altogether. There was singing, music, bunting, balloons and delicious food and drink. Long live the King.
28.4.2023
Our learning has been based on the story 'The Tiny Seed' by Eric Carle this week. We discussed how it explains the lifecycle of a seed. We thought about the different stages explored in the story- talked about the things that prevented some of the seeds from growing. We then all planted a a sunflower seed-discussing what the seed needs to grow and the lifecycle as we planted We have everything crossed that they grow!
The children have also enjoyed painting sunflowers in the style of Van Gogh and labelling the parts of a sunflower.
We have also learned how to do observational drawing. All of the children looked really carefully at the shape, size and finer details of the natural object they were drawing and the results were very impressive.
In our Literacy lesson, we worked together to create our own version of 'The Tiny Seed'. It is the first 'book' we have published from the 'Ruby Writers' publishing house and it can be found in our school library.
We have had our caterpillars for 1 week and they have grown lots already...we are really interested in observing the way they are growing and changing and are keeping a diary.
'Follow me Friday'-T enjoys watching the Disney Cars movies. T brought in a favourite book to share with us...Cars! We read the first few pages and it inspired us to create race tracks and chequered racing flags. The children worked as super teams to wave the flags and race the cars around the carefully designed (and labelled) race tracks. We also had fun creating car ramps in the garden too. What a super session T-thank you for leading our learning today.
21.4.2023
This week we have enjoyed reading and comparing the stories 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and 'Jasper's Beanstalk'. We made some super Jasper heads by following instructions carefully.
In PSHE, we have been discussing how Jack may have been feeling throughout the story and thinking of the story from the giants perspective. we agreed that it was Jack’s actions that made him so angry-would you be angry if someone came into your house and took your things? We decided that maybe the giant isn’t actually scary at all but was cross that Jack had broken into his home. We have learned that our actions can affect the feelings of others and are thinking about this carefully this week.
In Maths, we have been naming and rotating shapes to solve tangram puzzles. We all had lots of fun doing this but found it trickier than we expected!
5 new members of Ruby Class...
We are all very excited that 5 baby caterpillars have been delivered! We are looking forward to watching them grow and change over the next few weeks. Watch out for exciting updates.
This morning, the whole school took part in a writing morning. We all looked at the same picture to inspire our learning. Ruby Class-you all worked really hard, what super independent writing...
Spring Term 2-Once Upon a Time, Spring and Easter
31.3.2023
Happy Easter from everyone in Ruby Class!
This week we have been learning about the Easter story and finding out more about how Christians celebrate at Eastertime. We LOVED singing 'Spring Chicken' at our Easter service in church. In RE, we worked together to create a beautiful Easter garden-we have been tending to it all week.
We have also had great fun designing, making and evaluating our own Easter chocolates.
We started by looking at some current chocolate bars that are available in the shops. We were very excited that we got to taste them as we discussed what we liked and disliked about them.
Next, we designed our own Easter chocolate-thinking about what type of chocolate we wanted to use (milk, white or both), what shape our chocolate was going to be and what we were going to add to our chocolate to make it even more delicious!
Then it was time to become Willy Wonka and make our chocolates by following our design. We had a great time doing this!
Finally, we evaluated our chocolate-thinking about what we liked about it, what we disliked about it and how we could improve it next time.
Super DT skills everyone-we hope you enjoy eating your chocolate.
In our maths sessions we have been discussing and practising strategies for counting larger sets by moving objects. We are all super at counting-even Mrs Jackson was impressed!
We have been working SO hard in our phonics sessions and have now learned all of the Set 1 and Set 2 sounds (Fred Frog has been giving us lots of marshmallow claps!) We have become much speedier when reading and have even been reading multi-syllabic words speedily! Keep up the hard work next term Ruby Class.
24.3.2023
This week we are enjoying reading traditional tales-we found out that traditional tales are stories that have been around for a long time and that lots of people know them. We started the week by reading Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. We talked about the different reasons we might need to say sorry and then wrote a speech bubble for Goldilocks. The children also created some super pictures of the bears in the creative area.
We then read the story 'The Gingerbread Man' and had fun creating our own Gingerbread characters and writing an alternative ending to the story.
We have also shared lots of other traditional tales during our story times this week-Cinderella, The Little Red Hen, The 3 Billy Goat's Gruff and Little Red Riding Hood.
We LOVED sharing our maths learning with our parents in our maths café this week-thank you to everyone who was able to attend 😊
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by A this week, who is curious about hedgehogs. A told us that hedgehogs are small animals that have lots of spikes, can curl into a ball and live in the garden. We enjoyed finding out some more information about them together such as they have between 5000 and 6000 spines when they are fully grown, they like to eat slugs, snails, beetles, earwigs, worms and caterpillars, their biggest predator are dogs and foxes, a baby hedgehog is called a hoglet, they are actually lactose intolerant, they can't see very well, they hibernate between November and March and that they are nocturnal. A then helped her friends to create a clay hedgehog with spaghetti spines and to paint a picture of a hedgehog. The children then had to share a fact they had learned to earn their lunch!
18.3.2023
This week we have been celebrating British Science Week and have all enjoyed taking part in different science activities...
Happy Smells
We started by smelling a flower and thought about how it made us feel/what is made us think of. We then had a lovely discussion about smells that make us feel happy. Next, we tried to guess some 'secret smells' and decided which one was our favourite and why. We created a block graph of our favourite smells and wrote some super sentences too.
Wildlife Faces
We each had a photo of half of an animals/insects face and then had to find the other half from a selection. We then had to name our animal and find someone with an animal that had a similarity and then a difference. We did lots of comparing and contrasting before finding out some interesting facts about our animal/insect. We were excited to discover that we are likely to see all of the animals we found out about in and around Hintlesham-hedgehog, deer, field mouse, tortoiseshell butterfly, blue chalkhill butterfly, barn owl, long-eared owl, short-eared owl, little owl, fox, robin and badger.
We were all super brave in our Science Week assembly to parents. We talked about our Science Week activities and even read out our sentences about our favourite smell-everyone was very impressed!
We have LOVED learning about doubles in maths this week and are getting very fast at showing doubles on our fingers. Look at our super doubling butterflies...
We have also thought about how lucky we are to have such lovely mums and made them all a lovely dandelion Mother's Day card. We also included a special message about why we are thankful for them.
10.3.2023
This week has been all about the prehistoric animal brigade! We have had a great time learning about all the different types of dinosaurs-from the t-rex to the pachycephalosaurs!
We listened to the story 'The Girl and the Dinosaur' by Hollie Hughes and thought about the questions: 'can dinosaur bones really come to life?' and 'did people and dinosaurs live at the same time?'
We also learned about the fossil hunter, Mary Anning and made our own fossils.
We discussed the difference between fiction and non-fiction texts and created our own dinosaur information book to go into our school library.
In maths, we have been learning to name 3D shapes and talk about their properties. We enjoyed testing the different shapes to see if they would slide or roll down the ramp.
'Follow me Friday'
Wow-what a 'follow me Friday' session we have had today (thank you A's mummy for all of your help with this one). A is curious about hydraulics and brought in his amazing crawling caterpillar and magic painting machine-both powered by hydraulics. The children were amazed and VERY excited when he told them they too were going to have a go at making something pop up using his hydraulic machine. We learned that hydraulics is a mechanical function that operates through the force of liquid (usually water)pressure and that equipment such as cranes, forklifts, jacks, and pumps use hydraulics to lift and lower objects. We also talked about how aeroplanes use hydraulic mechanisms to operate their control panels.
The children then set to work, creating a character to pop up-we had all sorts from unicorns, flowers and dinosaurs to space rockets and a love heart family. We used 2 syringes and some tubing to create the hydraulic powered machine and had great fun testing our creations. Well done Ruby Class and thank you so much A!
28.2.2023
This week have enjoyed reading 'Whatever Next' by Jill Muphy. We have had super fun acting out the story and thinking about what we would choose to take to space with us. We have also liked learning about space from non-fiction texts. We created different planets using a salad spinner.
World Book Day 2023
We had a super day celebrating all things books! We started our day with a costume parade...all of the children in Ruby Class looked fantastic-from the tiger who came to tea, to princesses to Buzz Lightyear! Well done everyone!
Book World Cup...Mr Kricka chose 4 books for us to read...'Maybe' by Chris Haughton, 'Tiny Crab is a Tidy Crab' by Paula Bowles, 'You, Me and the Whole Wide World' by Bridget Marzo and 'Follow the Firefly/Run, Rabbit, Run' by Bernado Carvalho (this was a book that had no words and could be read back to front too!)
After reading 'Maybe', we became authors and created our own ending as the story ends with an elipses...we enjoyed painting pictures of the characters too!
“…the cheeky monkeys climbed down and they found the tigers and they eat all the tigers and then they eat all the bananas! That’s a good ending isn’t it!”
A
“…the monkeys went to get a banana. They are cheeky monkeys! They didn’t see any tigers, they got the bananas and ran away.”
N
“…naughty monkeys went down to get a banana. There were 2 tigers and they ran when the saw them. The tigers ran after the monkeys and they climbed back up the tree and mummy looked after them.”
A
“…the monkeys went to get the bananas and the tigers followed them and they climbed back up the tree and then the mummy came back. They didn’t get any bananas but they didn’t get eaten!”
G
After reading 'Tiny Crab is a Tidy Crab', we became illustrators and learned how to draw a crab. Then, we thought about what Tiny Crab says in the story and wrote a speech bubble.
After reading all 4 books, it was time to vote for our favourite one.
'Tiny Crab is a Tidy Crab' was our class winner. We took it though to Emerald Class for our book to go head to head with their favourite book 'Flowers'.
'Tiny Crab is a Tidy Crab' one the EYFS and KS1 vote so went head to head with 'Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis (the KS2 winner) in the final. As much as we loved 'Tiny Crab is a Tidy Crab', 'Du Iz Tak?' won the book world cup. That story made us laugh so we were happy with the result!
We also had a go at some black out poetry...we found it a little tricky but were really pleased with our end results.
This week's 'Follow me Friday' was led by C, who brought in her science kit to share with us. We had a great time experimenting with colours-we loved looking through the rainbow glasses.
Our week ended with a super skipping and playground games workshop with Mr Massey.
24.2.2023
This week we read the story 'Mr Wolf's Pancakes' by Jan Fearnley and looked at some non-fiction texts to learn all about Shrove Tuesday. We then carefully followed instructions to make our own pancakes-they were delicious!
We had a go at writing our own instructions for making pancakes. We thought really carefully about giving really clear, step by step instructions and tried really hard to use the phonic sounds we know to write words. We all remembered to use finger spaces and some of us remembered to end our sentence with a full stop.
In Maths, we have been comparing length and height.
In our computing session, the children created their own algorithm to reach a chosen destination on the treasure map and then programmed the BeeBot to follow their algorithm. When the BeeBot didn't quite do what the children were expecting, they persevered and were finally able to work out what they needed to do differently. Great problem solving and programming skills Ruby Class!
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by I this week, who really really loves the Disney Cars movies. She brought in 2 of her favourite characters to show us-Jackson Storm and Lightening McQueen. I enjoyed telling us about her favourite things that happen in the movies and some of the other children shared their thoughts and feelings too.
We worked together to turn the classroom into a movie theatre-carefully counting the seats and making sure we had equal rows. The children then enjoyed watching part of Cars 2 and some Cars Toons episodes together whilst eating some healthy fruit snacks.
We concluded the session by drawing and colouring in some of the characters from the movies. Thank you for a fun session I!
Spring Term 1-Winter, Lunar New Year, Superheroes and People Who Help Us
This week in our computing lesson, we enjoyed playing with the BeeBots and robot diggers. We learned what the different buttons do and explored what happened when we pressed them. We were surprised when he didn’t quite go where we expected. We loved making a map of his route by attaching a pen to his bottom!
10.2.2023
This week we have continued to talk about real life superheroes and thought about what job we would like to do when we grow up.
In our PSED session, we discussed who helps us to look after our teeth and why is it important to look after our teeth. The children then examined their own teeth with mirrors and counted how many teeth they could see. We talked about toothbrushing at school, reminding eachohter how long to brush for and when to brush our teeth. We also learned about what happens to our milk teeth. We then enjoyed brushing pretend teeth, sorting foods, playing with the dentist belt and teeth playdough set.
In maths, we met Octoblock-he is our new favourite! We are very good at finding all the different ways to make 6, 7 and now 8!
Some of Ruby Class enjoyed being actors in this weeks ‘Open the book...’ assembly with Mrs Velloso-Langton and Mrs Fletcher.
3.2.2023
This week we have been thinking about real life superheroes-policemen, firemen, paramedics, teachers, doctors, nurses and many more.
In our PSED sessions we learned how to ring 999 in an emergency and practiced saying our school address and our home address.
In our writing session we have used our super sound knowledge to label the different parts of a fire engine. We enjoyed finding out what all the different parts are used for.
In maths, we have been exploring capacity and are practising using the words full, half full, half empty and empty in our play. We have also been comparing mass by weighing parcels to find the heaviest and lightest-we were all surprised that the biggest parcel wasn't the heaviest.
Courageous Advocacy update...
This week we have made posters to put up around school reminding all of the children in school to turn off the lights when they are not being used and to recycle, recycle, recycle! Mrs Jackson has one in her office too! We have also asked everyone to talk to their families about using their cars less often if possible.
We have also received the news that our application to run a Young Tree Champions Project has been successful-we are ready to help protect our planet even more. Our saplings and hedgerow whips will arrive in March!
'Follow me Friday'-J LOVES emergency vehicles...
This week J brought in his collection of emergency vehicles to show us. He carefully explaianed what they all were and enjoyed telling us about the different parts and who uses them. The children then used junk modelling resources to create their own emergency vehicle.
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27.1.2023
This week our topic is superheroes. We discussed what are superheroes like and decided that they have superpowers, they help and save people, they wear special clothes and they have gadgets. We also made a list of all of the superheroes we could think of. The children all had fun creating their own superhero mask and thinking of their own superhero name. Ruby Class were surprised to receive a letter from a villain saying they had captured Ruby Bear. Fortunately, the villain left a map for the children to follow so they could rescue her. Super superhero work everyone!
We have LOVED block play this week and have been very good at designing and creating superhero dens and lairs, complete with secret elevators, invisible windows and trap doors!
Autumn Term 1-All About Me, My Wishes and Dreams
Thursday 20th October 2022
This week has been all about the 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow', ready for our first performance in church at our Harvest Festival. We have practiced lots and are excited to perform for the rest of the school and our parents.
In maths we have been continuing and creating our own repeating patterns.
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During our Pen Disco session we listened to 'Firework' by Katy Perry and used a magic pencil to create a firework picture by making different marks.
4.11.2022
This week we have learned all about the celebrations of Diwali and Bonfire Night. We listened to the story of Rama and Sita and made our own diva lamps out of clay.
We have also found out about Guy Fawkes and his gunpowder plot. We talked about our own experiences of bonfires and fireworks and worked together to create a super firework picture We thought about the sounds we might hear at a firework display and used our phonic knowledge to write some down. We also talked alot about safety-how to stay safe around a bonfire and how to hold a sparkler safely.
This week our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by F who loves dinosaurs. He taught us lots of interesting facts and trained us all to be super dino hunters. We all enjoyed learning new information, being part of a dinosaur dig like a real paeleontologist, making our own dinosaur fossils and going for a hunt with our expert dino hunter in the Wild Woods. Thanks for a super session F!
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In computing with Mrs Rouse, we had super fun programming Mrs Death the robot to follow our algorithm to make a ham sandwich. We then had a go at following the algorithm to make our own sandwiches. Thank you for teaching us computing Mrs Rouse, we are going to miss you very much!
Friday 14th October 2022
'Handa's Surprise' has been our book focus this week. We really enjoyed listening to and acting out the story. We also talked about the word 'surprise' and thought about a time when we have had a good surprise. We learned how to weave paper to make our own basket and practiced our scissor skills by cutting out fruit to add to our basket.
We have all really enjoyed taking part in our 'Maths through Movies' sessions this week. We used the movie 'A Bug's Life' to inspire our maths learning-we practiced and developed our subitising, counting, sorting and comparing skills.
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by A who is curious about the solar system and rockets. We learned some information about the planets and had lots of fun launching our own rocket.
Friday 7th October 2022
This week we have continued with our learning about 'past and present' by looking at how we have changed since we were babies and enjoyed talking about our personal history. It was fun to try and guess which baby was who-we noticed that some bit of us have changed but some have stayed the same. We also talked about all the different things we can do now we are big!
This week, our 'Follow Me Friday' session was led by I who loves to bake! She enjoyed teaching us how to bake delicious chocolate chip cookies.
Friday 30th September 2022
This week we have looked at the book 'Peepo' to help us with our understanding of history-past and present. We enjoyed looking at the pictures and comparing them to what our houses look like today. We talked about the similarities and differences and had a go at recording some of our ideas.
In maths, we have been learning how to sort objects by following a rule.
We enjoyed supporting the BIG MACMILLAN COFFEE MORNING at the village hall by working together to make a Maltesar fridge cake.
Friday 23rd September 2022
This week we based our learning on 'Elmer' by David McKee. We have talked about our similarities and differences and how fantastic it is that we are all unique like Elmer.
In maths we have been thinking about how things are 'exactly the same' and how they are 'different'. We explored this by playing animal snap, finding matching bears, building matching towers and sorting Elmer's socks into matching pairs. We have also been practicing our careful counting and talking about the names and properties of 2D shapes by making shape pictures.
We read 'The Colour Monster' by Anna Llevas to help us think about and understand some of our feelings. The children enjoyed painting a picture of the colour monster and talking about things that make us feel happy, sad, angry, scared, calm and loved. We are going to use the monsters to help us check in with our feelings each day and learn how to manage some of the more tricky feelings we have sometimes. We have made a promise to help each other feel calm and happy at school.
This week our 'Follow me Friday' activity was led by L, who is curious about science experiments and colours. We enjoyed using tubes and pipettes to mix coloured water to create rainbow potions.
Friday 9th September 2022
We have had a super first week in Ruby Class and the children have settled incredibly well. We have enjoyed exploring and developing our new learning environment and making new friends. We are all very excited about the year ahead.
16.09.22
This week we have been finding out more about each other and making friends. We have talked about our likes and dislikes and our hobbies and interests.
We enjoyed looking at ourselves in the mirror and painting a self-portrait. We noticed that we have some things the same and some things that are different-we will be exploring this more next week.
We have also been practicing writing our names.
We were all excited to begin our phonics adventure with Fred Frog and have learned the sounds m,a,s,d and t!
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by Mrs Death who is curious about colours. She wanted to paint a rainbow but only had red, yellow and blue paint! How could she make all the colours of the rainbow? L explained to her friends that red, yellow and blue are primary colours and that we have to mix them together to make the other colours. Wow L-what super knowledge! We enjoyed exploring this by painting our hands 2 different colours and then rubbing them together. We were all amazed when another colour appeared. We also tried changing our colours by adding small amounts of white and black.
Ruby Class remember and thank Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II for her love and service to her country. She was a truly incredible lady. All of our thoughts are with our new King Charles III and all of the Royal Family.
2022-2023
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Summer Term 2-Oh I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside
21.7.2022
Wow Ruby Class-what a year! We can't believe this was our final week together. We are so proud of everything you have acheived in EYFS and wish you all the best in Year 1.
Water play, ice and foot spas...
Predicting, testing and improving our pirate ships...
Finding baby newts in our pond...
14.7.2022
This week we were excited to finally go on our very first school trip!
What a super day we had at Foxburrow Nature Reserve! Ruby Class were absolute superstars as always and represented our school perfectly.
The day started with lots of excited squeals when we saw and got onto the coach for our very first school trip. Once we arrived at Foxburrow, we headed straight for the pond to do some pond dipping. We found lots of creatures that we have seen before in our pond, and lots of new ones too-including a newt! The children were absolutely brilliant at using the identification sheets to work out what creature they had found, the leader even mentioned how impressive their skills were. She said Ruby Class were the best Reception children she had worked with around the pond!
After a good hand scrub and some snack, we walked through to the beautiful wild flower meadow where we worked in teams to identify the shapes and colours of the wild flowers. Then we used bigger nets to do some bug hunting. We carefully brushed our creatures into the bug pot and used the identification charts to work out what we had found.
In the afternoon we made our way across the sheep field to find the woods. Once in the woods we played a game of 'meet the tree'. This game involved leading our blindfolded partner to a tree, giving them a few minutes to get to know their tree by feeling and hugging it, moving them away from the tree and then asking them to find their tree! It was lots of fun.
Next, we worked as a group to 'get to know' a tree. This involved giving the tree a name (we called ours Mr Mossy Feet), using a mirror to look at the very top of the tree, doing some bark rubbing and working out how big our tree is by seeing how many people it takes to hug the tree all the way round.
We then had some time to play in the woods, create some Andy Goldsworthy style art, paint with mud and use the mirrors to get a different perspective of the woods.
Finally, it was time to head back to the coach and return to school.
What a super day out!
7.7.2022
This week we have been thinking about how we can help care for our oceans. We were sad to discover that there is more rubbish in our seas than there are fish! We have got to find a way to help sort this problem out...watch this space!
We have also completed our 'Spirited Arts 2022' competition entries ths week. We thought carefully about the theme 'searching for God' and enjoyed creating some artwork.
We LOVED acting out the story of Noah's Ark in our Open the Book assembly this week and we also enjoyed practicing being Year 1's during our shuffle up morning!
1.7.2022
What a week! Alongside lots of new exciting learning (which included a DT moving picture project, artwork in the style of Kandinsky and some SUPER 'What Am I?' writing) and a whole school video being recorded, Ruby Class have LOVED doing their very first class assembly. The crowd went wild and we made all of the mums and dads tear up with pride. Well done Ruby Class stars-you were amazing!
24.6.2022
This week we have enjoyed our 'Sports and Well-being Week'. We shared a super successful sports morning with our buddies and a fun sports day with our families.
We also enjoyed welcoming Harshaparbra into our school and learning about the Buddhist way of life and learning to play the steelpan drums in a workshop led by Irie Steelpan Workshops.
We also had our final tennis lesson with Miss Hughes. We were VERY excited to see the net out this week. We can all use and understand the words racket, court, serve and rally. Watch out Wimbledon-here come Ruby Class!
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by D who is curious about how lifts work. He shared his book with us which taught us that a lift has a motorised pulley system and a counterweight. We learned that when the lift car goes up, the counterweight goes down and when the lift car goes down, the counterweight goes up. Mrs Polley the Parrot helped D and some friends create a lift for the rabbit in the Wild Woods.
10.6.2022
This week we had a visit from PC Richard Smith who taught us all about road safety.
Summer Term 1-Minibeasts, Lifecycles and In the Garden
26.5.2022
This week has been a week of celebration! Our caterpillars have all turned into beautiful butterflies and have been set free into our Wild Woods.
We have also celebrated 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II. We painted her portrait and wrote her a special message. We have sent them to her at Buckingham Palace-we hope she responds.
On Friday we enjoyed making party hats, bunting and placa mats for our special jubilee party. At the party we ate lots of sandwiches, crisps, cakes and jelly and ice-cream. We also sang @Rise Up and Serve' to give thanks for everything the Queen has done for our country.
20.5.2022
This week we have based our learning on 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle. We have enjoyed re-telling the story, creating a life cycle of a butterfly and writing about it independently. We have loved watching our own caterpillars wriggle, grow and go into their cocoons. We can't wait for them to emerge as butterflies!
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by Mrs Death this week who had found some unusual 'magical puffballs' in the field. The children showed great delight in explaining that they were in fact dandelions and are perfect for making wishes on! We explored the life cycle of a dandelion together and discovered what happens when a dandelion puff is placed in water (wow!). We finished the session with some observational drawing and blowing our wishes into the wind.
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Happy World Bee Day!
13.5.2022
This week we have been busy artists. We have enjoyed creating artwork for the Hadleigh Show and Suffolk Show art competitions.
Our 'follow me Friday' session was led by M who wanted to share her love of spiders with us. We watched a video about spiders and had fun creating spider cakes using oreos and chocolate fingers. We then got our 'feelers out to see what was about' and went on a spider hunt. We found 3 really big ones living on our ceiling!
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6.5.2022
This week we read the story 'Oliver's Vegetables' by Alison Bartlett and Vivien French. We enjoyed tasting different vegetables and made a bar chart of our likes.
In maths we have been telling 'first, then and now' stories involving addition using numbers 10-20.
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by S who is curious about pigs. With an oink oink here and a squeal, snort there, we enjoyed finding out all things piggy! S told us why she loves pigs and shared some information that she already knew and then we found out some more interesting facts after going on a little fact hunt. All of the children had a go at reading the facts they found-wow guys! Did you know that a piglet is born weighing 2.5lbs but a fully grown pig weighs between 300 and 700lbs? The average human adult weighs less than 200lbs! Did you know that pigs are even more intelligent than dogs and that mummy pigs sing to their piglets? Did you know that pigs do not have sweat glands and that they roll in mud to keep them cool? We found out lots of other cool stuff too and then enjoyed creating our own pigs or piglets. 🐖🐖
29.4.2022
We started the Summer Term by reading 'Jasper's Beanstalk' and exploring how a seed grows. We compared the story to 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and thought about what we would like to find at the top of our own beanstalk. We talked about the different homes in the stories and were surprised to learn that people used to live in castles long ago (more about that in Year 1).
We all enjoyed our first tennis lesson...
We had a super treat at the end of the week when Ed and his Mini Monsters Creepy Crawly Roadshow came to visit. We were all super brave and stroked or held a giant African land snail, a giant millipede, a bearded dragon and a corn snake. We also waved to a tarantula!
We were also very excited to receive a package in the post-our very own caterpillars to watch grow and transform into butterflies.
Spring Term 2-Once Upon a Time, Spring and Easter
6.4.2022
This week we have been looking for signs of Spring and finding out a little more about Easter. We had lots of fun practising our throwing and catching skills in our 'Time to Shine' cricket workshop. The coach taught us three important skills- standing ready to catch the ball, with our feet slightly apart, holding our hands out ready for the ball and keeping our eyes on the ball. We enjoyed performing 'Spring Chicken' at our Easter service. Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by I who is curious about horses. We enjoyed finding out some horsey facts, creating a 3D model of a horse and having a Ruby Class horse race where we all won a rosette!
1.4.2022
Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man! We have had a super start to the week reading and acting out the story of the Gingerbread Man. We even made our own gingerbread man biscuits. At the end of the week we read and sang the story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears. We enjoyed creating and describing the characters in the story and wrote super letters to the bears from Goldilocks to say sorry for the bad choices she made.
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by X who is curious about eggs! We sorted animals by whether they lay eggs or grow babies in their tummies. We talked about and touched the outside of the shell and compared it to the inside of the egg. We then placed 1 egg in a cup of water, 1 egg in a cup of diet coke and 1 egg in a cup of vinegar mixed with blue food colouring. We made predictions about what we think will happen. We will check them in 3 days!
25.3.2022
This week we went way back in time to the land of the dinosaurs. We read 'The Girl and the Dinosaur' and found out about the life of Mary Anning. We enjoyed describing dinosaurs and creating our own fossils. In maths we have been...
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by B who was excited to tell us all about her new puppy. We all wrote a list of the things a puppy needs and painted some super portraits of Fifi!
18.3.2022
This week was British Science Week and the theme was 'growth'. We found out how plants grow and what they need to survive. We excitedly planted our own sunflower seed and can't wait to watch them grow! We also enjoyed painting sunflowers in the style of Vincent Van Gogh.
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by O who loves playing musical instruments. She chose for us to use junk to create our own instruments. We made some super shakers, drums and guitars and loved playing along to 'Sky Full of Stars' with Johnny from Sing 2!
4.3.2022
We love PANCAKES! After reading 'Mr Wolf's Pancakes' we made our own and tasted different toppings.
This week, Mr Kricka challenged us to turn our door into a book cover. We chose the book 'Look Up' by Nathan Bryon.
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by M who is curious about reindeers. She explained that she loves them because one day she fed some. M wanted to find out some information about reindeers so we went on a reindeer fact hunt around the classroom. We enjoyed reading some ‘did you know?’ information to each other and learning some very interesting facts. Did you know that a group of reindeers is called a herd and the biggest herd recorded in the world has 400,000-1 million reindeers in it!? Did you know that male reindeers lose their antlers in the winter but females don’t? Did you know a reindeers antlers can grow up to 3 feet long and that no set of reindeer antlers are the same (just like our fingerprints)? M then challenged her friends to create their very own reindeer using a variety of craft materials. The children also wrote some super sentences about reindeers, remembering some of the new facts they have learned.
WORLD BOOK DAY 2022
We dressed up as a book character from one of our favourite books and enjoyed reading the story with our friends.
11.3.2022
This week we became space explorers. We read the story 'Whatever Next' by Jill Murphy and enjoyed acting out the story. We wrote a list of what we would take to the moon with us. Then we found out about the very first man on the moon...Neil Armstrong and real-life astronauts Chris Hadfield and Mae Jemison. We learned that there are 8 planets in our solar system and that they rotate around the sun. We made our own solar systems and created planets using a salad spinner.
Our 'Follow me Friday' session was led by D who is curious about how car engines work.
We watched a video and learned that an engine is a machine that uses many different parts to convert fuel into energy, or power. We also talked about the change we are seeing from cars that need petroleum/diesel to electric cars. The children then enjoyed playing with the cars, creating car ramps outside and pushing and pulling cars through the paint and creating prints. They were also really good at explaining what they have learned. Some of the children enjoyed exploring a jet engine in virtual reality using the app ‘Jig’.
Spring Term 1- Superheroes and People Who Help Us
18.2.2022
This week we have talked about dentists and learned how to look after our teeth by brushing them properly and eating healthily.
We have also enjoyed exploring the craft box and creating our own masterpieces.
11.2.2022
This week we have learned about 'real-life superheroes'. We found out how and when to call the emergency services by dialling 999 and talked about the different jobs the police, firefighters and paramedics do to help us.
SAFER INTERNET DAY 2022
We listened to a story called Digiduck and the Magic Castle which explores many aspects of online gaming. We talked about how important it is to tell an adult if there is something on a game we're unsure about and to keep passwords a secret (or our parents' passwords).
After, we thought about the different relationships we have in ours lives and who would be trustworthy to share personal information with.
Our 'follow me Friday' session was led by S who is curious about gems and crystals. S talked to us about her knowledge of crystals and gems. She told us the names of red gems, blue gems, green gems and sparkly gems. We then looked at some jewellery that had gems and crystals on them and enjoyed trying them on. But we still had one question…where do gems and crystals come from?
We watched a video which taught us that gems and crystals come from the earth-from rocks! We learned the word magma (very very hot liquid rock) and that gems and crystals are formed when the liquid rock cools down slowly. Wow! This led perfectly into S's science experiment-making sugar crystals. S carefully measured out 4 cups of sugar which Mrs Knuckey added to one cup of water. Mrs Knuckey then heated up the mixture on the hob until all of the sugar had dissolved. This formed our saturated solution. Once the solution had cooled a little, we carefully added some of the solution to 6 jars-one each! The children then chose a colour to add to their jar-finding out the name of the colour crystal that will form.
S-rose quartz, M-ruby. B-citrine, O-sapphire, I-amethyst, X-carmeline stone
The children carefully stirred their mixture and placed a piece of string attached to a straw for the sugar crystals to grow on. We have placed them on the shelf and will watch them for a few days. 🤞they grow!
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4.2.2022
This week we have enjoyed finding out about Lunar New Year and reading 'The Tiger Who Came to Tea' by Judith Kerr as it is the year of the tiger. We made lucky red envelopes, Chinese lanterns and painted pictures of tigers. We also wrote invitations to the tiger to our Lunar New Year celebration in the woods. We LOVED having the tigers join us for breakfast too and were very relieved that they didn't drink all the water in the tap or eat all of the toast in the toaster or jam in the jar!
In maths we have been learning all about the numbers 6,7, and 8-we liked meeting Octoblock! We are really good at finding the different ways the numbers can be made.
Our 'follow me Friday' session was led by I this week who LOVES making friendship bracelets. The children talked about what makes a good friend then shared the reasons why they like being friends with I. I then shared what she likes about being friends with them and we spent the rest of the session selecting our favourite beads to make friendship bracelets and necklaces.
In RE we listened to and acted out the parable of 'The Good Samaritan' and talked about the hero in the story. We agreed that we would all do the same thing as the stranger if we found someone in trouble.
NSPCC Number Day-Friday February 4th 2022: Ruby Class enjoyed completing some fun maths challenges together.
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28.1.2022
This week Ruby Class listened to the story 'Traction Man' by Mini Grey and loved becoming inventors when they were challenged to design and make a car for a him. They thought carefully about the resources and colours they wanted to use and then drew and labelled their designs.
The children all worked hard to follow their designs ‘exactly’ when it was time to make their vehicles and even made improvements as they went along. The grown ups were really impressed with their independence skills and perseverance.
Once the vehicles had been made, the children wrote super evaluations about what they liked best, how they made it better and what they would do differently next time. Great DT work everyone!
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Our 'follow me Friday' session was led by X who is curious about triceratops. We played a super game that taught us all some information about the triceratops and some of the other dinosaurs that lived in the Crustaceous Period of history. We learned that triceratops are herbivores, which means they are plant eaters. They have 3 horns which they use to protect themselves. They run on 4 very heavy legs and have a large frill around their head. They cannot run as fast as T-Rex!
X decided that he wanted us to all work together to create a model of a triceratops. We started by choosing some good sized boxes for the head and body and then painted them grey. Once the different body parts were dry we joined them together using some very sticky glue. We now have our very own Triceratops class pet! What a super activity X-thank you for sharing your curiosity with us.
21.1.2022
This week we began our superhero topic by deciding what makes a good superhero-what do they look like? What qualities do they have? We enjoyed reading 'George Saves the World by Lunchtime' by Jo Readman and decided we could help to save the world by recycling our rubbish. We sorted the rubbish into three piles- metal, plastic and paper. We set ourselves tha challenge of continuing to save the world by helping to sort the recycling at home. On Tuesday we were surprised to discover that a villain had captured Ruby Bear! The children decided to put on their superhero masks and use the maps to rescue her. First we found and pointed to Ruby Class on the map. We then found the toilets and the hall and used our fingers to show which way we were going to go to find her. The children knew we had to go past Emerald Class, through the corridor, past Sapphire Class and into Diamond Class. They were all fantastic at reading the map and found Ruby Bear very quickly.
Our 'follow me Friday' session was led by B who told us all about the bees at her Uncle G’s field and how they buzz around and make honey. We watched a video which taught us some more information about how they make honey. We learned that bees have 2 tummy’s and that they fill up their 2nd tummy by drinking the nectar of up to 1000 flowers. We found out that when the bees tummy is full it returns to the hive and then (this bit is a bit icky) one bee sicks up the nectar into the next bees mouth and then that bee sicks the nectar into the next bees mouth and so on until the last bee drops the honey into the pod (honeycomb). Some of the bees guard the honeycomb and flap their wings really fast to create a wind to draw the rest of the water out and thicken the honey up. Finally one of the bees seals the cap with a waxy substance so the nectar doesn’t fall out. Then the beekeepers can take the honeycomb away so we can eat the honey. How clever are bees!🐝.
B decided that she wanted to create footprint bees as she thought painting our feet would be tickly and funny! B enjoyed painting everyone’s foot (and having hers painted by X)-it was very tickly and very funny! We all visited the foot spa for a clean and then B showed us how to add stripes, wings and eyes to finish off our bees. She was super at giving instructions and checking everyone’s work.
We were a bit worried that knowing how honey is actually made might put us off but it didn’t and we all enjoyed eating honey sandwiches in the Wild Woods this afternoon!
What a super activity B-thank you for sharing your curiosity with us.
14.1.2022
We started our week by setting some goals for 2022. The children thought about things they want to do more of or things they want to get better at. We then made New Year wishing wands and waved our magic wands to make our wishes come true.
We have enjoyed finding out about the season of winter. We talked about the different types of weather we see in the winter time and practiced our cutting skills by making snowflakes. We discussed what types of clothes we need to wear to keep warm and the children painted some fantastic pictures of them dressed for winter and dressed for summer and made comparisons. We used one of our Fred finger spelling sessions to write labels for our paintings. We also talked about animals and hibernation, birds and how we can help them and what changes we see to the trees in winter.
In maths we have been learning to compare quantities using the language 'more than', 'fewer than' and 'the same amount'. We are getting really good at subitising too!
We are learning lots of new skills in our badminton sessions.
Our 'follow me Friday' session was led by O who is curious about caterpillars.
She told us all about the life cycle of a butterfly 🦋…”a butterfly lays some eggs, caterpillars come out, they spin a home and turn into a butterfly”.
We then watched a video which taught us some new information. We learned that the first thing a caterpillar does when it comes out of the egg is eat the shell, that the caterpillar stops eating when it is full, when the caterpillar is inside the cocoon it is called a pupa, it stays in the cocoon for 15 days and when the butterfly comes out it’s wings are wet and it can’t fly for about an hour.
O then explained her activity-creating a model of a caterpillar on a leaf. She gave very clear instructions and all of the children had a great time painting, making and cutting.
7.1.2022
It is great to be back at school! The children came in on Wednesday with big smiles on their faces and enjoyed sharing all of their Christmas adventures with each other.
In maths we have enjoyed learning about the number 0. We began our new RE unit 'How do we help others when they need it?' by talking about the qualities of a superhero and discussing the hero in the story 'The Snail and the Whale'. We agreed that we can all be helpful superheroes and will be working together to spot acts of helpfulness over the coming weeks. This term sees the return of our 'follow me Friday' session and this week we followed Mrs Death's curiosity about rainbows. We learned lots of new facts such as a rainbow is actually a circle so has no end and that we all see a slightly different rainbow depending on which raindrops we see it through. We then enjoyed making our own rainbow using Skittles and hot water.
Autumn Term 2-Celebrations and Festivals-A World of Colour
17.12.2021
Our Christmas celebrations continued and this week we have enjoyed making our own Christmas crackers, baking Christmas brownies and making chocolate Christmas tree lollipops to go on top and creating cork Christmas tree decorations for our buddies. We also made our own Christingles and held a service in the hall with the rest of the school. The Christingles looked magical when we turned out the lights. We finished the week dancing, laughing and eating at our Christmas party with Emerald Class. Merry Christmas everyone-we hope you have a lovely break celebrating with your families.
10.12.2021
Our Christmas celebrations are well and truly underway! This week we have enjoyed making hats, wearing our Christmas jumpers and having Christmas dinner with our friends. We loved meeting Father Christmas via Zoom and visiting Santa's workshop in Gym Trail. We have also practiced, practiced, practiced and performed our Nativity 'We're Going on a Baby Hunt' to the rest of the school and to our families.
3.12.2021
"I'm Stick Man, I'm Stick Man, I'm Stick Man that's me!" This week we have had a great time exploring the story 'Stick Man' by Julia Donaldson. We created Stick Man in a variety of ways.
In maths we have been finding one more and one less than a number.
Christmas Decoration Afternoon
Ruby class enjoyed using the tools to create their very own reindeer friend to hang on the tree. First they used a saw to cut the wood for the reindeers neck and then they hammered nails into the cork to create the legs. To complete their reindeers the children added googly eyes and a red nose and gathered some sticks from the garden to form the antlers.
26.11.2021
This week we have enjoyed finding out about the different ways we celebrate birthdays in our families. We read 'Kipper's Birthday' and discussed the concept of yesterday, today and tomorrow. We thought about birthday wishes for ourselves and others. We made birthday cupcakes for Ruby Bear and celebrated her birthday in our Wild Woods session. We wrote invitations and birthday cards and practiced wrapping presents. We held a fancy dress party in our role play area and sang happy birthday in French!
In Maths we have been finding out about the numbers 4 and 5 and how bigger numbers are made up of smaller numbers.
We have begun our Christmas production rehearsals and are exploring why Christians perform nativity plays at Christmas in our RE sessions.
100 Greatest Black Britons
Ruby Class were interested to find out about Mary Seacole, a brave nurse who helped soldiers in the Crimean War. The children painted her portrait, designed her a medal of bravery an explored how she made medicine using plants and herbs.
19.11.2021
We have loved celebrating World Nursery Rhyme Week and exploring the rhymes Incy Wincy Spider, Sleeping Bunnies, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and Wind the Bobbin Up. We enjoyed singing the rhymes and completing different activities such as making bunny ear hats, weaving a spiders web, creating pom pom spiders, winding wool around sticks, printing with bobbins, making skeleton pictures and labelling body parts.
We have worked together this week to create a dressing up hut as we were all really interested in creating and wearing costumes in our play. We printed some wallpaper and chose which costumes we wanted to have. Mrs Death helped us add some hooks and we wrote labels using our phonic knowledge so we can keep the hut tidy.
On Friday we wore our pyjamas and held a cake sale to raise money for Children in Need.
12.11.2021
This week we have been learning about the Hindu festival of light-Diwali. We have listened to the story of Rama and Sita, created our own Diva lamps using clay, designed our own Mehndi and rangoli patterns and made lanterns for a lantern parade around the classroom.
We have also been finding out about the significance of Remembrance Day and why we wear poppies. We talked about the bravery of 2 Hintlesham soldiers and created lots of poppies to remember them.
Henry was the son of Samuel and Ellen Tricker, of "California," Hintlesham, Ipswich. He enlisted on 24th August 1914, was killed in action, believed to have shot by a sniper, and is buried at Suffolk Cemetery, Vierstraat in Belgium. (The cemetery was created in 1915 by the Suffolk Regiment).
A wooden poppy / cross in memory of Henry is regularly placed on the Hintlesham War Memorial.
Alfred John Welham was born in Hintlesham in 1917. On 26 August 1944, Jack was part of a 5 man crew flying an Anson 1 which crashed into a tree while trying to land at RAF Halfpenny Green in Wolverhampton.
The funeral was held in Hintlesham on 2 September 1944 where the hymns included "God of the living" and "Abide with me". Members of the East Suffolk Police formed a guard of honour.
5.11.2021
This week we focused our learning on Bonfire Night. We found out about Guy Fawkes and why we still celebrate with fireworks today. We enjoyed creating a group firework picture using glue and glitter then writing the sounds we might hear if we were watching a display.
We talked lots about safety and how to stay safe near a bonfire and how to hold sparklers carefully.
Autumn Term 1-All About Me, My Wishes and Dreams
21.10.2021
This week we have been noticing the changes that are happening in our environment because it is Autumn. We enjoyed going on a leaf hunt, looking at the different colours, shapes and sizes. We used the leaves we found to create some friends.
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In Maths we have been finding out about the numbers 1, 2 and 3 and making sets of 1, 2 and 3.
The children are really enjoying being able to write words independently.
15.10.2021
This week we have enjoyed activities based on the story 'Super Duper You' by Sophy Henn.
We have based our history learning on finding out how we have changed from when we were babies. We talked about what we looked like then and now and thought about the things we could do when we were small and all the super duper things we can do now we are big! We learned the word 'chronology' and have been practicing putting things in order from oldest to youngest.
In maths we have been comparing measurements and creating repeating patterns in lots of different ways.
In RE we learned that Christians believe that God is the creator of the earth, read the Creation Story and became creators of jellyfish (although we could not give them life like God did).
Fred Frog has taught us 16 sounds now...m a s d t i n p g o c k u b f e. We have been using these sounds in our independent writing this week...we have chosen to write letters, label play dough food and make signs for zoo animal enclosures during Explore and Learn time. Mrs Death has been super impressed!
8.10.2021
Following on from the children's interest in babies and dolls, this week we focused our CLL learning on the story 'Peepo' by Allan and Janet Ahlberg. We looked carefully at the pictures and talked lots about what we could see in the pictures that is different to what we see and use today. We learned that Peepo is an old story and that some of the things in the book show us what life was like in the past.
In maths we have been comparing set of objects, using the vocabulary more/fewer/the same.
In RE we have been thinking about the VIPs in our lives and how Christians believe that God is the most important person in their lives. The children enjoyed painting pictures of their VIPs and labelling them using their phonic knowledge.
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1.10.2021
This week we have focused our CLL learning on 'Handa's Surprise' by Eileen Browne. We have enjoyed creating a story map and making masks and props to help us retell the story.
In our Funky Fingers sessions we learned how to weave a basket just like Handa's and practiced our scissor skills by cutting out fruit.
In maths we have been sorting objects by looking at things that are the same and things that are different. We were also challenged to work out the sorting rule and spot the odd one out in a set.
We have loved the arrival of our new sand pit and have enjoyed digging, scooping and using the moulds. We created a seaside by adding buckets of water to the sand area to dip our toes in!
24.9.2021
In CLL and PSHE this week Ruby Class have been enjoying the story 'Elmer' by David McKee. We have talked about our similarities and differences and how amazing it is that we are all unique like Elmer. We also learned the word 'conversation' and thought about what the elephants might be saying to each other. The children enjoyed thinking of interesting adjectives to describe Elmer and creating their own Elmer using a milk bottle.
In maths we have been thinking about how things are 'exactly the same' and how they are 'different'. We explored this by finding matching bears, building matching towers and sorting Elmer's socks into matching pairs. Mrs Death tried to trick us by pairing socks that were stripey or spotty but were different colours but we used our good looking eyes and spotted her mistake.
Wednesday 22nd September was National Fitness Day. We enjoyed completing 1 minute challenges throughout the day.
This week the children have been really interested in hairdressers. As a result of this interest we have set up the Ruby Class Hair Salon. Everyone has been engaged in role play, have enjoyed writing appointment lists (using each other's name cards to help) and have been practicing their scissor skills (on paper customers!)
In RE we started our learning about 'Why is the word God so important to Christians?' We created a Ruby Class treasure box, labelled it with our names and will fill it with special treasures throughout the year. This is to help us engage with the idea of names being special and to help us understand what kind of things are important to different people.
We practiced our dragon breathing in our mindful moments this week. Click on the dragon to join in!
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17.9.2021
This week Ruby Class have enjoyed celebrating Roald Dahl day by making 'marvellous mixtures'.
We read 'The Colour Monster' by Anna Llevas to help us think about and understand some of our feelings. The children enjoyed painting a picture of the colour monster and talking about things that make us feel happy, sad, angry, scared, calm and loved. We are going to use the monsters to help us check in with our feelings each day and learn how to manage some of the more tricky feelings we have sometimes. We have made a promise to help each other feel calm and happy at school.
Fred Frog taught us the sounds 'm' and 'a' and we learned the rhymes to help us write them...'Maisie mountain mountain' and 'around the apple and down the leaf. The children all really enjoyed their first phonics lesson and can't wait to learn some more sounds next week.
We also made pizza this week, following on from the children's interest in setting up a pizza kitchen role play and creating pizzas with the play dough. We used 2 cups of flour and 1 cup of Greek yoghurt to make our base and then chose what toppings to put on top. The pizza looked and smelled delicious!
We have loved our 'mindful moments' this week-join in with our rainbow breathing by clicking the rainbow.
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10.9.2021 SETTLING IN
Wow, what a super first week at school you have had Ruby Class. You have all worked really hard and stayed resilient-we are very proud of you.
This week Ruby Class enjoyed exploring the inside and outside areas and making new friendships. We have loved our afternoons playing with Year 1 too!
We read the story 'Here We Are' by Oliver Jeffers and talked about ways we can protect planet Earth.
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Summer Term 2-Oh I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside.
2.7.2021 SPORTS AND WELLBEING WEEK
What a week...a Suffolk Minds session, meditations, mindfulness activities, Sports Morning, wellbeing activities, an archery lesson, our very first whole school assembly (socially distanced outside) and Gold Awards for everyone in Ruby Class. We are all feeling great!
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25.6.2021
This week in Literacy we read the story 'Tiddler' by Julia Donaldson and thought of our own reasons why Tiddler might be late. We used our ideas to write a letter of apology to Miss Skate.
In Maths we have been learning about odd and even numbers and practicing
our counting skills.
During Explore and Learn time the children enjoyed making fishing rods to catch Tiddler on..."sorry I am late Miss Skate, I got caught on a Ruby Class fishing rod".
We enjoyed our first gymnastics lesson in PE and learning about the human
skeleton. Did you know we have more bones in our body when we are born than we do now and that our longest bone is in our leg?
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4.6.2021
EXCITING NEWS...we have 4 butterflies! When we returned to school on Tuesday we were excited to discover that all 4 of the caterpillars had turned into butterflies whilst inside their chrysalides. We watched them for a while and then took them out to the Wild Woods to set them free into the world. We hope we see them again someday!
To kick off our new topic-'Oh I Do Like To Be Beside the Seaside', we have been reading the story 'What the Ladybird Heard at the Seaside' by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks. We looked carefully at the illustrations and thought of lots of interesting words to describe Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len. We then created our own WANTED posters for these bad guys who this time were trying to steal the mermaids beautiful hair. To accurately draw the pictures of Hugh and Len, we listened to and followed step by step instructions from the illustrator herself, Lydia Monks.
In Maths we have been finding out about doubles. We have enjoyed playing with the dominoes and even created our own.
Our RE theme this half term is 'How can we care for our wonderful world?' This week we have been looking for things outside that make us say 'I wonder'. The children took photos of some beautiful things and extended the sentence 'I wonder' to explain their thoughts.
Summer Term 1-Growing, Lifecycles and In the Garden
27.5.2021
Finding lots of ladybirds in the garden inspired us to read 'What the Ladybird Heard' by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks this week.
In Literacy we enjoyed re-telling the story, creating and labelling our own maps and independently writing instructions on how to find the prize cow.
In Maths we have been practicing using all of the skills we have learned so far in Reception.
In Topic we collaged our own ladybirds-we love how different they all look.
We enjoyed our last tennis lesson and are now looking forward to doing some gymnastics next half term.
EXCITING NEWS: 4 of our caterpillars have turned into chyrysalises (we lost one little caterpillar). We can't wait to watch them transform!
21.5.2021
Watching our caterpillars grow has inspired us to continue with our 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' learning this week. We can't believe how big they are getting-they are now surrounded by webbing and they crawl around a lot more!
In Literacy we created a story map to help us re-tell the story. Then we thought about something that happened at the beginning of the story, in the middle iof the story and at the end of the story and practiced writing sentences and labels.
In maths we have been exploring spatial reasoning through looking at shapes. We designed a square using different shapes and put all of the individual squares together to make a new quilt for Grandpa. We arranged the squares to make a long thin rectangle and a short fat rectangle. The we used pattern blocks and a star template to explore different ways to build a star. We also had great fun playing a game with the Numicon.
In Topic we looked at the illustrations in the story and talked about collage. Then we had a go at collaging a caterpillar or a butterfly in the stye of Eric Carle.
14.5.2021
In Literacy we have been reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle. We have really enjoyed learning about the life cycle of a butterfly and were VERY excited to receive our very own caterpillars to look after. We have 5 caterpillars and can't believe how much they have grown already. We are really looking forward to witnessing their transformation.
In maths we have been counting down from 20 and telling first, then and now stories involving subtraction.
In PSHE we have been talking about healthy eating and what foods we should eat lots of and what foods we should eat less of.
In Topic we have been looking at the symmetrical wings of butterflies and have created our own symmetrical butterflies.
7.5.2021
This week we have been reading the story 'Oliver's Vegetables' by Vivian French. In our Literacy sessions we planted potatoes and then sequenced and wrote instructions for how to grow potatoes.
In Maths we have been telling first, then and now stories involving addition.
We also enjoyed taking part in the NSPCC Number Day and completed lots of number challenges.
In preparation for our caterpillar week next week we made edible caterpillar sandwiches. We did lots of maths learning as we made them-talking about 2D and 3D shapes, repeating patterns and counting carefully.
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27.4.2021
In Literacy we have been exploring non-fiction texts about growing and have been busy writing sentences for our own fact book.
In Maths we have been matching and describing shapes and creating our own pictures using shapes.
In RE we have been finding out about the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan and making our own rakhis to give to someone special.
In Music we have been learning about 'pulse' and in PSHE we have been thinking about working as a group to help others.
19.4.2021
This week in Literacy we have been reading and comparing Jasper's Beanstalk by Mick Inkpen and the fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk. We talked about the similarities and differences between the two stories and enjoyed writing about what we would like to find at the top of our beanstalk. We also practiced our listening skills and our cutting skills by creating our own Jasper the cat. In Maths we have been exploring numbers 11-20 and practicing our counting skills. In RE we have been thinking about the words 'special', 'precious' and 'unique' and engaging with the question "What makes every single person unique and precious?" as we further explore Christianity.
In PSHE we have been talking about our British Value of 'Rule of Law' and enjoyed making a poster to promote our newly formed school rules.
12.4.2021
This week in Literacy Ruby Class have been listening to the story The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. We have enjoyed planting seeds and talking about the life cycle of a flower. We loved singing our seasons of the year song and talking about what happened to the seed in each season.
In Maths we have been meeting the Numberblocks 11-20 and finding out about tens and ones.